Guatemala Armed Violence Assessment

The Guatemala Armed Violence Assessment (GAVA) provides data and analysis on armed violence, actors and initiatives to stem violence. It aims to map the dynamics, intensity, distribution, and the factors that contribute to the persistence and cyclical reproduction of violence that affect the country.

Despite the signing of the Agreement for a Firm and Lasting Peace in 1996, which marked the cessation of internal armed conflict, Guatemala still faces high rates of violence and has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and in the Central American subregion. In 2010 alone there were a total of 5,960 homicides. This suggests that fourteen years after declaring peace, the country has not yet achieved a total reduction of violence.

On the contrary, the postconflict period is characterized by increasing levels of armed violence, with the state failing to guarantee justice and security as public goods. Firearms, violence in border departments, and homicides against women need to be dealt with as a priority by the Guatemalan state and society.

In response to this worrying scenario, the report Guatemala en la encrucijada. Panorama de una violencia transformada (‘Guatemala at the Crossroads’) aims to map the dynamics, intensity, distribution, and the factors that contribute to the persistence and cyclical reproduction of violence. The report’s analysis of armed violence shows that, while it has strong continuities with the past its character continues to transform over time. This perspective highlights changes as well as offering an understanding of the various forms of violence that affect the country. After offering a brief historical overview in the introduction, the five chapters of the report go on to describe the many effects of violence, its manifestations, its causes, and the efforts to reduce it.

Guatemala en la encrucijada. Panorama de una violencia transformada (‘Guatemala at the Crossroads: An Overview of Violence Transformed’) was published in Spanish by CERAC(Bogotá), the Small Arms Survey, and the Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development. The report benefited from the participation of several Guatemalan civil society organizations.